The Truth Is Out! Atiku Lets The Cat Out Of The Bag, Reveals The Real Reason He Asked For All Election Materials To Be Surrendered

The
presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday, adduced reasons why he applied for
an order to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,to surrender all the materials used for the
February 23 presidential election, for inspection.

He
said the request was to establish that the exercise was fraught with manifest
irregularities, including multiple thumb-printing of ballot papers, saying he
intends to engage forensic experts to analyse the election materials.
Consequently, he prayed the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in
Abuja, for leave to be allowed to obtain some of the sensitive materials that
INEC deployed for the presidential election. Meantime, the tribunal, stood-down
its proceedings for one hour to enable it to consider the merit or otherwise of
the request.

The
three-man panel tribunal headed by Justice Abdul Aboki, reserved ruling on the
motion marked CA/A/P/EPT/1/2019 after it heard from Atiku’s lawyer, Chief Chris
Uche, SAN.Uche told the tribunal that
the motion dated March 4, was brought pursuant to section 6(6) of the 1999
Constitution,as amended and section 151
of the Electoral Act, sought for six reliefs, among which included an order
compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to surrender
all the sensitive materials that were used for the presidential poll, for
forensic scrutiny.

Among items, he said his client wants to be
inspected by forensic experts, include over 80million ballot papers that were
used for the election, which he said would be subjected to thumbprint analysis.
Other items the motion is asking the electoral body to release to the intending
petitioners for scrutiny are the Voters Register, the Smart Card Reader
Machines, as well as information stored in INEC’s back-up server. He said the
first prayer in the motion paper was for leave of the tribunal permitting Atiku
and the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP,
to file the action before the pre-hearing session of the tribunal, as
prescribed by the Electoral Act.

The
Applicants (Atiku and PDP) urged the tribunal to direct INEC to allow their
agents to scan and make photocopies of vital documents used in the conduct of
the election, for the purpose of establishing manifest irregularities they said
led to President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as the winner of the presidential
election. They maintained that the six reliefs sought against INEC were for the
purpose of filing and maintaining an election petition they intend to lodge
against the outcome of the 2019 Presidential Election.

Chief
Uche, SAN, said his clients decided to approach the tribunal with the motion,
in view of the fact that the Electoral Act stipulated that filing of the
petition must not exceed 21 days after the election result was announced.
“Because of the limited time,the
Applicants who intend to file a petition, want to go and inspect, to be able to
secure some of the documents that will be relied upon to maintain the petition.
“We are urging your Lordships to grant us this orders so that if we are
inspecting, we can make copies by way of scanning or photocopying.

“The
entire process will be conducted in the presence of INEC officials, and even
the Respondents if they so wish”, Uche submitted. However, the tribunal
Chairman Justice Aboki queried Uche on why his clients would not simply apply
to be issued with Certified True Copies of the requested items, and if the
extant electoral law permits a litigant to scan election materials. The
tribunal panel stressed that opinion of forensic experts may not be admissible
in evidence under the existing Electoral Act which it said specifically okayed
the admittance of certified documents.

A
member of the panel, Justice Emmanuel Agim, noted that some of the requests by
Atiku and the PDP were “outside the precincts of section 151 of the Electoral
Act”.However, in his reply, Uche argued
that the court had in a plethora of decided cases, held that the sort of
evidence his clients are seeking to secure, could be admitted if it were
obtained with the leave of court. He said it would be practically impossible
for INEC to certify over 80million ballot papers that were used in over 172,
000 polling units in the country where the presidential election took place.
According to Uche, with leave of the tribunal, forensic experts would be
brought to testify and give evidence during the eventual hearing of the
petition. “My lords if they are not allowed to secure the evidence and testify,
it will deprive us of the ability to identify those abnormalities when we find
them.

“Besides,
if one individual thumb-printed over 500 ballot papers, the certified copies
cannot reveal it. That is why we want to scan them and send for expert
analysis. “That is why we need INEC to allow us access to scan the required
documents. Going by section 72 of the Electoral Act,all the materials are in the custody of
INEC.“The information we want to go is
just to help us to package our complaint, at the end of the day,INEC will also have the opportunity to
confirm the authenticity or otherwise of any of the items we tender in evidence
before the tribunal. “In essence my lord no one will be prejudiced if our
requests are granted.

“We
make this application, knowing the very limited time and very disadvantaged
position of any petitioner so far as gaining access to the election
infrastructure is concerned”, Uche added. After it had listened to the motion,
the panel stood-down for one hour to deliver its ruling, even as directed
Atiku’s counsel to supply it with the said court decisions that allowed the
grant the reliefs sought by the Applicants. The motion ex-parte motion was
supported with a 12 paragraphed affidavit that was deposed to by one Col.
Austin Akobundu, rtd, the director of Contact and Mobilization of the Atiku Abubakar
Presidential Campaign Council. Cited as 1st to 3rd Respondents in the matter
are the INEC, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress,
APC.

It would seem from available accounts that the earliest form of Western-style
health care in Nigeria was provided by doctors brought by explorers and traders
to cater for their own well being.[2] The services were not available to the
indigenes.